Causes of Anxiety Dreams
Anxiety-riddled dreams can stem from several sources and might reflect your deepest concerns in life. Some reasons you might be experiencing anxiety in your dreams can include:
- Traumatic events: Trauma, whether it’s something you experienced or witnessed, can trigger intense dreams. This might result from your mind trying to process or make sense of what you’ve been through.
- Stress: Life can be full of stress, and daily stressors — whether work-related, from a fractured friendship or relationship, or due to financial struggles — can cause disrupted sleep or a stress dream at night.
- Recent loss: Grief can show up in many ways, and it’s not uncommon to experience distressing dreams after the loss of someone close to you.
- Life changes: Any major life transition — a new job, moving, a marriage or divorce, or a new baby — can be both exciting and stressful at the same time. The uncertainty and fear surrounding intense life changes can manifest in anxiety dreams.
- Anxiety disorders: People living with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) — or any other type of anxiety — often describe feeling like their anxiety spills over from the daytime into the nighttime hours.
- Substance use: Excessive use of drugs or alcohol has been shown in research to impact sleep patterns, even among people in recovery negatively.
"Worrisome thoughts while we are awake can certainly influence our sleeping state. Anxious or worst-case scenario thinking can inhibit our sleep and/or create a dream state where we act it out. Knowing that we can calm our thoughts with a bedtime routine can be helpful in creating a more soothing rest."
— Dr. Karmen Smith, LCSW, DD
14 Common Types of Anxiety Dreams & Their Meanings
Anxiety dreams can be unsettling. Understanding the meaning of an anxious dream will help you determine if there are any underlying concerns you should address.
1. Drowning
Dreams about drowning might be related to anxiety or panic disorders. The experience of drowning is not unlike symptoms of a panic attack, like difficulty breathing and pressure on the chest. You might have drowning dreams when you’re overwhelmed or in a situation you can’t manage.
2. Not being able to find a place
Dreaming about being lost can symbolize real-life frustrations, confusion, or feeling like you’re out of place and don’t belong somewhere. This type of anxiety dream can occur when you’re facing a major choice in life or have to make a big decision and don’t have a clear direction.
3. Storms
Dreams of storms might represent emotional turmoil. This bad dream can also be a sign of impending change. Storms are unpredictable, which can be symbolic of events that are causing you stress and anxiety. Dreaming about severe storms is not unusual for people with generalized anxiety disorder.
4. Earthquakes
Dreaming about earthquakes can suggest uncertainty or instability in your life. Instability can be either physical — like a big move or a new job — or emotional — like a recent breakup or troubled relationship.
5. Being chased
Dreams of being chased can symbolize stress or anxiety about being with other people or in social situations that make you uncomfortable. This is a relatively common type of anxiety dream for people with social anxiety disorder.
6. Car trouble
Having vivid dreams about car trouble might be a response to your life suddenly changing direction or you desperately trying to accept a new reality. If you feel like you’re losing control, a bad dream about car problems might be related to feeling helpless.
7. Flooding
The fast rush of flooding waters can represent burnout or feeling overwhelmed daily. Floods are dangerous, powerful, and destructive, and their aftermath can be hard to recover from. If you’re stressed about a job, relationship, or health-related matters for you or a loved one, dreaming about floods can make sense.
8. Teeth falling out
The teeth-falling-out dream is more common than you might think. Dreams about losing teeth tend to occur when dealing with a significant loss in life. You might be experiencing grief over the loss of a loved one or pet, a home, a friendship or relationship, or even a job — all of which can manifest in dreams of your teeth falling out.
9. Naked in public
The naked-in-public dream is often linked to feelings of inferiority. The embarrassment that comes with suddenly realizing you’re the only one without clothes on might symbolize a struggle to connect deeply with others.
Feeling inferior can prevent you from developing meaningful relationships, even with people who love you and want the best for you. The classic anxious dream where you’re the only one naked and nobody else notices may be your subconscious acknowledging that you’re the only one who believes you aren’t valuable or worthy.
10. Forgetting or losing something important
Dreams about forgetting something or losing essential items can come from insecurity. These dreams might suggest a fear of failure or loss of control. They also might signify fears about not being able to meet expectations.
11. Falling
Dreaming about falling is common, but if this is a dream you have often, it might be related to feeling like you don’t have control over your life. Occasionally, falling dreams will cause you to wake suddenly. This response, known as a hypnic jerk, is harmless, albeit annoying. Falling dreams can mean you should look at your work life, school life, or personal relationships.
12. Being late
If you’re constantly dreaming about being late, underlying stress about deadlines might be the culprit. These dreams can also signify struggles with time management or difficulties with decision-making.
13. House fire
Fire dreams are indicative of very stressful times. Some experts say that dreaming about fire can be the worst type of stress dream. If you’re feeling stressed or burned out about current or upcoming events, fire dreams might be a sign you need to reevaluate your life to see if there are places you can remove stress.
14. Feeling unprepared for a test
Dreaming about feeling unprepared for an exam is a sign of deep-seated worries of inadequacy. Fear of failure can cause you to have stressful dreams about tests, meetings, presentations, or anything else you could be judged on. You should know, though, that this typically has less to do with being unprepared and more to do with a fear of seeming incompetent.
Do Anxiety Dreams Mean Anything?
Anxiety dreams can be more than just something that disrupts a pleasant night of sleep. They can reflect concerns and fears you haven’t fully acknowledged during waking hours. While the dreams differ for everyone, they’re usually very graphic and share common themes and elements that might suggest underlying issues.
Because sleep is so essential for optimal mental health, getting to the root causes of your anxiety dreams is crucial.
Acknowledging Anxiety Dreams vs Dream Anxiety Disorder
Understanding the difference between having an anxiety dream and having dream anxiety disorder (more commonly referred to as nightmare disorder) is important. Though both involve bad dreams, the symptoms aren’t the same.
- Anxiety dreams: These dreams are stressful and can reflect daily life stressors. Most often, they’re not a cause for concern unless they disrupt your sleep to the point that you’re having difficulty functioning.
- Dream anxiety disorder (nightmare disorder): Nightmare disorder is a recognized diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and is characterized by terrifying dreams that cause severe distress and anxiety leading up to bedtime from fear of the next nightmare.
How to Stop Anxiety Dreams
If you regularly have anxiety dreams, several strategies can help calm and relax your mind so you can get a good night’s rest.
Journaling
Research shows journaling for anxiety can offer multiple physical and mental health benefits, including improved sleep.
Talking about them
Talk about your dreams with someone you trust. Anxiety dreams can be an insight into other areas of life, and sometimes, having an outside perspective can help you see something you might be missing.
Have a regular bedtime routine
Maintaining a regular and consistent bedtime routine can improve overall sleep quality. Whether you use essential oils for anxiety, try relaxation techniques, take a bath, or read, establishing a nightly ritual signals to your brain that it’s time to sleep and can work wonders.
Don’t use your phone just before bed
Limiting screen time before bed is known to promote better sleep. Devices emit blue light, which research has found can promote melatonin suppression and alter circadian rhythms.
Practice mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness — the art of staying present and in the moment — can reduce anxiety and decrease stress. Going to bed more relaxed and calmer might alleviate some of your anxiety dreams.
Don’t eat or drink caffeine or alcohol just before bed
Eating large meals or drinking caffeinated beverages or alcohol before bed can impact sleep quality. Though alcohol may be relaxing initially, it can ultimately increase anxiety and depression, according to studies, increasing the likelihood of anxious dreams.
Talk to a mental health professional
If you’ve tried to deal with anxiety dreams on your own but feel like you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to a qualified mental health professional. They understand how to get to the root cause of your dreams and will give you additional tools to try.
"When anxious dreaming persists for weeks despite your best efforts to create a soothing bedtime routine, it may be time to seek professional help. The cause of anxiety can range from EMF (electromagnetic frequency), WiFi, news, and social media information about doom and gloom. Individually, we can be aware of what we allow in that contributes to our anxiety."
— Dr. Karmen Smith, LCSW, DD
Get Professional Support for Anxiety at Talkspace
Dealing with anxiety on any level — including dream anxiety — can be a daunting experience if you’re trying to do it on your own. Seeking therapy for anxiety can be a turning point.
Talkspace is an online therapy platform that connects you with licensed therapists and psychiatrists who understand how debilitating anxiety dreams can be. They can offer you tools to overcome your dreams and get adequate, peaceful rest every night. Learn more about how to stop anxiety dreams by reaching out to Talkspace today.
